D.A. strikes plea bargain in fatal car accident case

In a last-minute plea bargain on Sept. 30, Parke Hoover, 63, of Millerstown agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment in an August 2011 crash along Routes 11/15 in Watts Twp. that killed a Washington state woman.

Judge Kenneth Mummah immediately sentenced Hoover to two years probation and ordered him to pay court costs.

District Attorney Chad Chenot said that the plea bargain was struck after the defense raised a discovery issue during a pretrial meeting among the prosecution, defense and Judge Mummah.

Due to a paperwork oversight, several lines of a state police officer’s notes were not shared with the defense, Chenot said.

The remedy in such cases is either to dismiss the charges or to continue the case, Chenot said. Since there were several issues, including double jeopardy and the discovery matter, Chenot ended up accepting Hoover's plea of guilty to the misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment.

He said that continuing the case was an unattractive option because the prosecution had summoned a witness from Washington state and the defense had called a witness from Colorado.

Hoover had been charged with a third class felony of homicide by vehicle and a first class misdemeanor of involuntary manslaughter. He was the driver of a PennDOT dump truck that made a U-turn crashing into a Ford Crown Victoria driven by Dale Satorius, whose wife, Hui, 43, was killed. Satorius’ then 5-year-old daughter, Julie, was seriously injured in the collision.

The case was complicated because former state trooper Kevin Frey, on his last day of employment before retirement in February 2012, filed charges of moving a vehicle unsafely against Hoover before District Judge Dan McGuire of Duncannon.

Hoover met the trooper at the district judge’s office, pleaded guilty and paid $111 in fines and court costs, complicating the state’s case against Hoover.

On March 20, 2012, Chenot charged Hoover with homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter, and two summary offenses.

The case was resolved, finally on Sept. 30, with Hoover’s guilty plea to misdemeanor reckless endangerment.